Reflecting on What Might Have Been

It was returning every positional starter from last year's team but one, and last year's team batted 351. The entire staff was intact, in fact enhanced by new additions. All inn all, things were looking pretty good.

In the end, though, things for the men's baseball team turned out to be pretty average.

Unable to consistently put together sound defense and hitting, and victimized by a horrible day in New York, Harvard finished the season in third place (8-6) in the EIBL, and 19-15 overall.

"I don't look at it as a great season, but I don't look at it as a disaster either," said junior rightfielder Mike Hill, next year's caption. "all we could do was try to play our best, but unfortunately for us Yale put together a great year."

Yale captured the regular season league title with an EIBL records of 14-4, thanks in large part to an explosive start. After starting out their season with splits against Pennsylvania and Navy, the Bulldogs reeled off four consecutive league sweeps and ran away with the crown.

In spite of this, however, the Crimson stayed with Yale for the first half of the season. But then came the doubleheader with Columbia.

"We were playing hard, and we had split at Yale on Saturday," Hill said. "Some days you come out flat, and "some days you come out flat, and that's what we did against Columbia. We were flat and they beat us."

The losses to the Lions eliminated Harvard from title connotation with the season barley half gone. Yet in spite of this letdown, the season was not a total disappointment.

After a reasonable successful spring trip in which they went 4-5 against some upper echelon Division 1 schools, the team faltered early on, losing its first three games. The Crimson rebounded a week later in its EIBL opener, sweeping Army and splitting with Brown.

"Sweeping Army was probably the highlight of the season," said Hill "They are always tough, and we hadn't taken them like that in a long time."

Unfortunately, the Crimson could only manage .500 ball after that, splitting league contests with Dartmouth and Yale before the debacle in the Big Apple.

On an individual level, many players stood out. senior pitchers Tom Hurley and Sean Johnston were outstanding all season, proving to be one of the best tandem of starters in the league. Senior Nick DelVecchio led the league in homers, with eight.

Senior co-Captains Jim Mrowka and Dan Scanlan were among the league leaders in virtually every offensive category, while sophomore Dave Morgan and junior Juan Zarate played excellent two-way baseball.

Even after being eliminated from title contention, the team remained focused and played hard.

"The fact that we want 7-1 after the Columbia games is a reflection of this team's competitive," said hill.

Though they have no one to blame but themselves for the limited success of this season, the Crimson can only wonder about what might have been as they rebuild for next season.